Post 11 comes back to beat New Bern

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on July 9, 2004 1:56 PM

• Print
• Email

MOUNT OLIVE -- Jes Snyder waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Finally, in his fourth at-bat against New Bern right-hander Lemmie Barwick, the Wayne County Post 11 shortstop guessed the right pitch -- an outside fast ball. The right-handed Snyder easily connected and drove a game-winning, walk-off double into right center field.

Jesse Lancaster scored on the extra-base hit, Snyder's ninth of the season, as Post 11 rallied for a 6-5 victory aga-inst New Bern Post 24. Wayne Coun-ty, the Area I East South Divis-ion champion, rema-ined un-beaten in 14 games at Scarborough Field this season.

New Bern (11-6) finished 5-5 against Division opposition and more than likely will face Post 11 in next week's first-round playoff series. Game one is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday at Mount Olive College.

"What I liked is that we showed some heart in coming back," Wayne County coach Brad Reaves said. "That's what you always want to see."

Erik Lovett's tape-measure home run, a blast that landed a good 25-30 feet behind the scoreboard in right center, helped ignite a late-game rally for Post 11. It was Lovett's eighth round-tripper of the season and 22nd overall in two-plus legion seasons. Mike Oglesby plated Todd MacCoy with a sacrifice fly to right field, closing New Bern's advantage to 5-4 after eight innings.

Lancaster threw a perfect ninth, striking out all three batters he faced. The rising senior at Eastern Wayne became the ninth Post 11 pitcher to record a win this season.

"Jesse showed me something in that last inning," Reaves said.

With Wayne County's 10-game win streak on the line, Austin Hood drew a lead-off walk against Barwick to start the ninth. Barwick retired the next two batters before yielding a single to Lancaster, his first hit in five plate appearances.

That brought Snyder to the batter's box.

"He had been going curveball, curveball, curveball all night," Snyder said. "I figured he would mix things up. I had been out on my front foot a few at-bats and then that last one, I just picked it up out of his hand better.

"That was redemption after that error, yes sir."

Wayne County took a 2-0 lead in the second on RBI singles by Hood and Matthew Holloman. However, Snyder's bobble at shortstop helped New Bern rally for a 2-2 tie in the sixth after Post 24 had gone hitless in the previous five innings.

Reliever Brett Butts threw a perfect seventh after the disastrous sixth. But the hard-throwing right-hander encountered more trouble in the seventh and surrendered three earned runs on five hits. Post 11's outfield also committed two errors during that stretch.

"Brett couldn't find the strike zone and we kicked it, compounded some mistakes," Reaves said. "It's tough, sometimes, when you walk a couple of guys to stay focused on defense, which that's no excuse."

But Post 11 wouldn't let Barwick, New Bern's ace, erase its home winning streak. Four batters recorded their first hits of the contest during the final two innings and all nine Wayne County starters contributed at least one hit.

Josh Pate emerged the offensive leader with 2-for-2 effort.

"When you're up 5-2 in the eighth, it doesn't matter who you play, you ought to come away with a win," Post 24 coach Gary Smith said. "We go to the playoffs and everybody starts over. We just told these guys that a lot of time in Legion it's not the team who wants to be there the most, but the team who wants to be there the least.

"Teams that still want to hang around generally do."

New Bern 000 002 030 -- 5 6 1

Wayne County 020 000 022 -- 6 11 3

Two outs when game-winning run scored.

Leading hitters -- New Bern -- Mike O'Connor 1-2, RBI; Chris Beck 1-4, RBI; Lemmie Barwick 1-4; David Towarnicky 1-3; Chris Holder 1-1, 2B; Todd Seymore 1-3. Wayne County -- Jesse Lancaster 1-5, RBI; Jes Snyder 1-4, 2B, RBI; Erik Lovett 1-4, HR, RBI; Todd MacCoy 2-3; Airlon Vinson 1-4; Josh Pate 2-2, RBI; Austin Hood 1-3; Garrett Sutton 1-4.

DP -- Wayne County 3, New Bern 1. LOB -- Wayne County 6, New Bern 4. SB -- O'Connor 2, Cunningham. CS -- Beck, MacCoy, Vinson. SH -- Davis. SF -- Oglesby.

IP H R ER BB SO

New Bern Post 24

Barwick (L) 82Ú3 11 6 6 4 1

Wayne County Post 11

Pennington 2 0 0 0 2 1

Williams 2 0 0 0 1 3

Butts 4 6 5 5 3 2

Lancaster (W, 1-0) 1 0 0 0 3 0